Five episodes of Round the Twist they would never get away with today
By Nick Dent
Let’s talk about Australian children’s TV show Round the Twist. Specifically, let’s talk about season three, episode one, titled The Big Burp. In it, adolescent Pete Twist falls in love with a tree nymph, gets pregnant, and gives birth, via his mouth, to a grotesque green tree baby.
In a show famous for outlandish and envelope-pushing scenes, this is the one that friends of Hanlon Innocent – the actor playing Pete in Round the Twist The Musical – have never forgotten.
“I often will be asked, ‘are you going to get pregnant on stage?’ Innocent laughs, in a break from rehearsals at Queensland Theatre in South Brisbane. “Unfortunately, ‘no’ is the answer to that.”
Left: The TV show’s famous lighthouse. Right: The cast of the Queensland Theatre production: Charly Oakley (Linda Twist), Matt Hetherington (Tony Twist), Luke Sero (Bronson Twist) and Hanlon Innocent (Pete Twist).Credit: Great Ocean Properties/Queensland Theatre
Meanwhile, Charly Oakley, who is playing Pete’s twin sister Linda, will forever be scarred by season one episode Know All.
“That scarecrow that chases Linda around the lighthouse, it’s terrifying, it’s so scary.”
Chills, freak-outs, wardrobe malfunctions and bodily ones: Round the Twist specialised in them, and has a unique place in the hearts of Gen Y kids in Australia and beyond.
A bit like SeaChange crossed with Scooby-Doo, the show was about a family that goes to live in a lighthouse on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road, where they encounter ghosts, animals and monsters while navigating all the typical problems of school and adolescence.
Patricia Edgar at the Australian Children’s Television Foundation created it as a vehicle for the popular children’s stories of Paul Jennings, his generation’s Andy Griffiths. Its first two seasons (1990 and 1992) did so well in overseas markets that a further two seasons were commissioned at the turn of the century.
It was a childhood favourite of Brisbane-based composer Paul Hodge, who was casting about for an idea for a musical back in 2016. “I have a large number of nieces and nephews and I had been looking for something that my whole family could come and see,” he recalls.
While changing a nephew’s nappy, Hodge’s mother happened to say “this nappy’s pongy” – setting off a primal memory.
Director Simon Phillips and writer/composer Paul Hodge in rehearsals for Round the Twist The Musical.Credit: Lyndon Mechielsen
“My brain immediately went ‘up the pong!’. And that’s when I went, oh my God, I should do Round the Twist as a musical.”
The catchphrase is used by seven-year-old character Bronson in an episode called Smelly Feat, where he saves up the stench of his feet by keeping his shoes on for six months in order to stop some local bullies abducting a nesting turtle.
With the help of Queensland Theatre’s former artistic director Lee Lewis, Hodge first workshopped his musical in 2021. On board was veteran theatre director Simon Phillips, who has previously ushered Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Muriel’s Wedding to the stage as musicals.
“I’d never heard of Round the Twist,” Phillips says. “But the thing that got me interested was that people between 35 and 42 went, ‘Yay, you’re doing Round the Twist.’ It’s a whole different generation of potential theatregoers.”
Phillips describes the program’s enduring appeal as “the Paul Jennings factor”.
“It’s so imaginatively irresponsible, this world that he lives in. It’s devoid of conventional logic, anything’s allowed.”
Hodge’s musical encompasses the story arcs of the program’s first two seasons, but peppers other iconic show moments throughout – Phillips calls them “lollipops”.
“We’re capturing the spirit of it, but making it coherent, and music is the key, the glue.”
The TV show’s original theme song was written by Andrew Duffield from the band Models – an earworm asking the trippy question, “Have you ever, ever felt like this?”
Hanlon Innocent (Pete) and Charly Oakley (Linda) rehearsing Round the Twist: The Musical.Credit: Lyndon Mechielsen
“I always knew that the theme song would be an important part of the show,” Hodge says. “I wanted to make sure that the rest of the score felt like it belonged in the same world. And the theme song is also core to the plot.”
Boasting high-tech design and a 17-strong cast (three boys will share the role of Bronson), Round the Twist The Musical features Matt Hetherington as dad Tony Twist, David James as avaricious real estate agent Harold Gribble, and Christen O’Leary as neighbour-with-secrets Nell Rickards.
Innocent says that while people will come to the show to see ghosts and weird things, the musical, like the TV show, has a powerful emotional undercurrent.
“Tony is a widow, and the three kids are all dealing with that in their own different ways. The show is about a family living on, past grief, and also about welcoming more people into your family – it’s about communities coming together.”
“We see that even adults get scared,” Oakley adds. “This show brings people into a more disarmed place around being embarrassed and afraid.”
Audiences won’t be shortchanged on those lollipops of strangeness, however. Phillips recalls saying to Hodge on first reading the script: “What on earth is this bit there for?”
“Paul would go, ‘because it’s in the TV series, and if I don’t put it in the show, I’ll get murdered’.”
Round the Twist: The Musical plays at the Playhouse, QPAC, November 12-December 8.
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